SIR — Having been raised in Watchet and lived there for some 30 years until 1978, I was delighted to see the town's industrial past is to be celebrated by improving elements of the West Somerset Mineral Railway (Free Press June 12).
Your report states work on the West Pier includes fixing of steel rails to replicate the old tracks of the railway.
There is no need. Some of the tracks are still there, albeit under a few inches of concrete laid a couple of decades ago. Someone could easily confirm this with a metal detector.
The arrival of the Mineral Line had a huge impact on the appearance of the western part of Watchet.
The West Pier, as we know it today, originally started adjacent to the old watchtower which now forms part of Sammy Hake's Cottage. Part of the raised walkway and wall had to be removed to allow trains to pass onto the pier from the Mineral Yard.
The yard itself is, presumably, built on land reclaimed from the beach at the point where the Washford River meets the sea.
The construction of the yard and its tunnel which carries the river served well for many years. The yard housed a winch that lowered a dam into the river, so diverting it into the south-western corner of the harbour. This stream was at the forefront with the battle of silt build-up for many, many years.
It is a shame that those who were responsible for the design of the marina did not learn the benefits of this simple device from our forefathers.
So imagine what the harbour area looked like pre-Mineral Railway. The basin through which the river flows was probably the coastline.
Was the road bridge over the river already there when the railway arrived? I certainly do not know but it is pretty obvious that some of the cottages in Market Street were built well before the bridge and its approaches because they are at a much lower level than the road.
Also, there was no Esplanade - only a beach and the area beneath the controversial East Quay was known as Yard Beach - presumably after the adjacent boatyard which would have been where Harbour Road now exists.
It is to be hoped that the museum could acquire a diorama depicting Watchet's coastline before the arrival of the railway - it would give a fascinating insight into how the town developed.
Much of the Mineral Railway is now private land so a complete "Railway Trail" is out of the question.
However, I do hope that a path can be cleared up the incline at Comberow and onto the Brendon Hills. Photographs of that engineering marvel show it to be a most impressive structure.
Paul Norton,
Rydon Lane,
Taunton.